On this day in 1868, W. E. B. Du Bois was born

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U.S. Chief Delegate Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, left, is shown with artist Pablo Picasso in the Salle Playel Auditorium in Paris, April 20, 1949 at the opening of the World Congress of Partisans of Peace. Author, educator, college professor, and public lecturer for over 75 years, Du Bois advocated the elimination of discrimination and inequality against black Americans. (AP Photo/Jean-Jacques Levy)
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W. E. B. Du Bois was born on this day in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Du Bois received his Bachelor’s degree from Fisk University and his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard.

Du Bois was a prominent voice in civil rights and was a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. He wrote extensively on issues of race and racism, including his famous book “The Souls of Black Folk,” which is considered a classic. He conducted groundbreaking studies on the conditions of African Americans in the United States, including his landmark study “The Philadelphia Negro.”

Du Bois passed away in Ghana in 1963, where he had moved to escape persecution during the McCarthy era. He is remembered as one of the most influential figures in the struggle for civil rights and racial equality in the United States.


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